Evaporative cooling is a well-known technique in which water is passed in a cross or counter current relationship to air over an evaporative cooling medium.
The most common water distribution system used in evaporative cooling systems is a pipe with spray nozzles directing water upwardly into a cover of a general dome or semi-cylindrical shape. The cover or dome deflects the water downwardly into top of the cooling pad.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,352 discloses a support assembly for water evaporative cooling systems of the type that are used in greenhouses, poultry houses and livestock installations. Such cooling systems are installed within one or more of the walls of the building and utilize water soaked pads. The outside air is cooled as it passes into the building through a water soaked pad because of vaporization of the water. A pump is employed to supply water at controlled rates to a drip conductor positioned above the pad. The water drips downwardly from the conductor through the pad soaking same. Simultaneously, exhaust fans installed within the walls of the building create a negative pressure therein causing outside air to pass through the water soaked pad into the building thereby effecting the desired cooling of the incoming air. Excess water is collected below the pad in a gutter and thereafter pumped back to the drip conductor to continue the cooling operation.
Different types of support assemblies for water evaporation cooling pads are known in the art, for example:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,269 discloses a cooling pad hanger system comprising a top horizontal drip conductor having a cover and large drip orifices along its bottom, a hanger strip of sheet metal extending downwardly from the drip conductor along its rear, and a return drip collector under the cooling pads having flanges which hold frames surrounding the pads and catch descending water.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,268,540, discloses a furnace evaporative cooling unit having a water conduit surrounded partially by a cover. After running down the sides of the cooling pad, which is supported only at its lower corners, the water is captured by a water tank, one side of which has an outwardly extending flange.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,180 discloses an evaporation cooling system including a top cover over a water conductor, cooling pads and a bottom gutter. The top cover contains pad cover brackets provided with retainers located on opposite sides of the water conductor which terminate in flanges that hold the pads. A pan in the bottom gutter is provided with many openings and the flat bottoms of the cooling pads rest on the flat pan above these openings.
While such prior art support assemblies for evaporative cooling systems provide a means for cooling agricultural and poultry operations, a need exists to make such systems simpler in construction, and more economical and efficient in use. These goals can be achieved by a cooling pad support assembly which is:
1. easier to assemble;
2. easier to inspect and clean;
3. more efficient in promoting vaporization;
4. more constant and more uniform in inducing flow of water through the vaporization area;
5. more capable of facilitating an increase in the vaporization area height or length; and
6. more complete in insuring saturation of the top of the cooling pad.